President Barack Obama speaks about energy during a visit to a Wal-Mart store in Mountain View, California. Walmart will double by 2020 the number of on-site solar energy projects at its U.S. outlets and distribution centers, the company announced

Standing beneath the glare of fluorescent lights inside a Walmart store, President Obama on Friday rolled out his plan for sweeping energy reform, an ambitious effort to convert more businesses, homes and government building to solar power. Obama’s energy initiative — an executive action that calls for investments in more solar energy jobs, upgrading homes and buildings to be more efficient, and partnerships with the housing and tech industries — and aims to move the country away from foreign oil dependency while creating more jobs in the renewable energy sector. Despite a spotty record on labor issues, Walmart has been what many experts consider a pioneer in energy efficiency and renewable energy. It’s one of at least 10 private companies that, as part of Obama’s plan, have agreed to double-down on their efforts to convert more of their energy to renewable sources. Dozens of affordable housing organizations, retailers, home builders and tech companies have also signed on to the presidents plan with their own plans to invest in solar, helping the environment and lowering their electricity bills.

FACT: Since President Obama took office, America has increased its electricity generation from solar—more than 10-fold.

Arkansas-based Walmart, an early investor in the solar industry, pledged on Friday it will double the number of solar energy projects at its stores and distribution centers by 2020. By the end of last year, the retail giant had 335 renewable energy projects, with solar making up about 6 percent of those. The company expects the additional solar projects will save $1 billion per year in energy costs. “It’s the right thing to do because when you save that money you can pass that money back to consumers in the form of lower prices, or you can create more jobs,” Obama said. The executive order, an 11-page document released Friday morning, involves more than 300 private and public sector commitments to cut carbon emissions, an additional $2 billion in energy efficiency investments in federal buildings over three years, new efficiency standards for appliances and training programs at community colleges across the country that will assist 50,000 workers to enter the solar industry by 2020.

The announcement was applauded by several environmental groups, including Greenpeace and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. The Mountain View store in which Obama spoke now gets 14.5 percent of its energy from solar systems built and installed by SolarCity, based in San Mateo and one of Walmart’s biggest solar vendors. SolarCity says its projects with Walmart alone have created an estimated 9,000 construction jobs in the United States, and SolarCity itself has created an additional 5,000 permanent American jobs since it did its first project with Walmart in 2010. A few Silicon Valley tech leaders have also signed onto Obama’s energy plan. Apple is building a 2.8 million square-foot headquarters that will also run entirely on renewables, including a rooftop solar system, and has committed to powering all its facilities with green; Yahoo announced it will add a solar installation to their Sunnyvale headquarters by early 2015; and Google announced on Friday a $1 million prize to develop the next generation of power inverters, or cooler-size boxes that help homes run on solar panels.

Something I hope all of you will read and ponder – lots of good people in the world, including many who risk a lot on behalf of others ….

Letter to Ukrainians: In defending your freedom, you are also defending the freedom of the people of Russia

Editors note: Ukrinform has published a letter to Ukrainians by Russian politicians and civil society activists. The news agency says that the names of those who have signed, as well as the content of their letter, deserve to be quoted without editing. Thanks to them, in this difficult time, Ukrainians understand that they are not the only ones in their struggle and that Russians are no enemies to Ukraine, but the entanglement of Russia and its military forces in a war against Ukraine is a crime by the Kremlin which will turn out to be an historical disgrace for them. However, Ukrinform adds that we should let each draw his own conclusion.

Dear sisters and brothers!

At this terrible moment we write to you with pain in our hearts.

The ruling regime in Russia has crossed the final moral boundary and without any declaration of war has started a military offensive in Ukraine. At the start of March the Russian army occupied Crimea, and now it is trying to annex the south east of your country. In addition, the special forces of the Russian army do what is shameful for the military of any country by hiding their own national identity and faces and acting in the capacity of “Little Green Men”. This is a disgrace for Russia, a disgrace for our army. The Russian army has never shamed itself by hiding behind peaceful inhabitants. Russian soldiers would not have behaved in this way now, but the regime has pushed them into committing a crime against their brothers and against their own sense of honour.

For the occupation of Ukrainian territory, and the annexation of part of it, the Russian authorities have made use of false slogans related to alleged cruel, long-term oppression of Russian-speaking Ukrainian citizens by the Kiev authorities, and to the alleged seizure of the government in Ukraine last February by fascists and gangsters. We understand perfectly well that in all the recent years when Ukraine was governed by Yanukovich, who hails from eastern Ukraine, he would never have oppressed his fellow countrymen from Donbass, Kharkiv and Crimea more than Ukrainians from the western part of your country. He and his predecessors oppressed all citizens, robbing them and converting the potentially one of the richest countries in Europe into a country of poor and disenfranchised people, often forced to look abroad for a crust of bread. We also understand very well that the current government of Ukraine, recognised by just about the whole of the international community, has absolutely nothing in common with either fascism or Nazism. This government has started to govern the country in an on-going dialogue with its citizens, and is trying to establish a democracy in Ukraine.

Left you a comment on the previous thread! This is an incredible letter from Russians who demonstrated a great deal of courage going against Czar Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. Thank you for circulating it. It’s indeed a must read!

Look up literally any legislative debate of the Obama era in which Democrats wanted to make public investments and you’ll find one thing: Republicans screaming about the deficit. America is broke, the argument goes, so we can’t afford job creation, infrastructure, educational opportunities, expanded health care benefits, or really much of anything.

We are, GOP officials repeatedly insisted, in the midst of a debt crisis that threatens to destroy civilization as we know it and saddle our children and grandchildren with a crippling burden.

And this afternoon we received proof that Republicans didn’t mean a word of it.
The House voted 274-131 on Friday to permanently extend and expand the research and development tax credit that expired at the end of last year.

The bill championed by the business community would cost $156 billion over 10 years with no offset…. The research and development credit, which has been extended on a short-term basis roughly 15 times over the last 30 years or so, expired at the end of last year, along with more than 50 other tax breaks.
The full roll call is online here. Note that 212 Republicans – nearly all of whom have railed against the threat of out-of-control deficits – voted for it, as did 62 Democrats.

Window on Eurasia: Why Moscow Desperately Wants a ‘New Cold War’ – and Why There Isn’t and Won’t be One

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“Countering Putin is thus as important as countering the Soviet Union was, but it is going to be a far greater challenge. Because Putin’s actions take place on the margins of the existing Russian empire, they do not appear to be the existential threat to the West that the Soviet system was. Consequently, there will always be those in the West who will argue that the West should “understand” what Moscow is doing and reach “compromises.” And that is all the more likely because the West and especially the United States has relatively fewer resources to bring to bear than it did – and many more political leaders who are playing to the crowd by suggesting that what resources these countries have should be spent not on defense against a “distant Russian threat” but at home. Putin is playing to that and one could even say promoting that by his on again-off again aggression, with each step back gaining plaudits from those who refused to condemn his earlier two steps forward.

But because the Kremlin leader wants to revise all three 20th century settlements that are at the foundation of the current international order – the denunciation of empires in 1919, the rejection of the idea that ethnicity is more important than citizenship in 1945, and support for the end of Soviet empire in 1991 – the West does face a challenge: If Putin succeeds in Ukraine and elsewhere, the international system will be transformed not to one of a new cold war as he suggests and as some in the West fear but into something much worse: a Hobbesian world of all against all, in which once again the hard power of military force rather than the soft power of principles will be dominant.

That is not a world that the US or the West will find at all congenial – it will be even more uncomfortable for us than was the cold war — but it is one they will be allowing to emerge if they do not work to contain Putin’s aggression – and ultimately reverse it.”

In many ways I have seen Walmart as the “enemy’ in the struggle for social and economic justice. Yet I am happy for our President to enter their stores and bring a little conversion and heart to their souls.

I might be all alone in this but I think of this appearance today as a kind of soft power move. After all was said and done, it called attention to energy efficiency AND it did manage to call attention to worker fairness. PBO playing the long game.

Agree meta. I was actually amazed that Walmart went along with it. President Obama truly stuck it to them with his ‘counting pennies’ comment. Labor leaders should have been applauding and chuckling at #PBO’s deft approach to opening an inclusive dialogue about Walmart’s ecological and societal responsibilities given that they consume lots of electricity and are one of America’s largest welfare recipients.

I kept reading that Walmart was very proud that PBO is the first sitting POTUS to visit. He fully knew what he was doing! So I think they were very flattered and PBO was genuine about they energy initiative. But yeah, let the fair wage spotlight be upon them brighter than ever.

I agree with your (and Bob’s) take meta. As we discussed on TOD earlier, PBO always plays the long game with these seemingly odious moves. And like Bob – I noticed the “counting pennies” remark and immediately knew what it was about. The Union protests are short-sighted on this one…hopefully they will come around soon.

I **think** I just heard DWS tell Rachel that Dems won’t be allowed in the room when witnesses are questioned, won’t have access to papers/documents, etc. I was doing something else and not listening real close at the beginning.. She did say they had good discussion in caucus on pros and cons of participating with no decision made. NP meeting one more time with Boehner.

So glad you’re keeping us informed on the Ukraine, Bob. For a while I was obsessed with it. I have since calmed down some, but still follow religiously. It was so bad, that the first Saturday night after this started, and I was talking constantly about it with my husband, after we got in bed, he finally said: “Do you think you can let the Ukrainians take care of themselves tonight? You know you can’t do a thing for them.”
Yes……I do get obsessed, so appreciate all the info, and yes, I do wish I could wave a magic wand and make it all well!

Carolyn, it is because you and millions of others CARE that Ukrainians know that they are not alone. Just giving them, thanks to The Internet and social media, all the encouragement possible, is a FORCE that Tzar Vlad and others, like Assad, cannot withstand.

Yes, Ukrainians must determine their destiny, first and foremost. But, for them to know they are constantly in the hearts and minds of fellow humans – that is an amazingly powerful reality that us inhabitants of the 21st Century should deploy relentlessly.

Mr. Bobfr,
It am so glad Ms. Dudette introduced amazing artist here. She reminds me of Jonelle Monae, refreshing, talented, intelligent, inspiring. But so important clothes on……when you have this much talent you do not have to expose yourself. So pleasant to watch her and hear her sing.
Thank you for sharing this.
Enjoy your dinner, you surely deserve a great meal after all the encouraging tweets you give us.